health topics

If you’re going to fall and hurt yourself, you might think a hospital lobby is a pretty lucky place to do it. After all, the building does house doctors and nurses who can tend to you right away. That’s what 82-year-old Doreen Wallace thought. But she was wrong. On October 8, she and h…

Flu vaccines have always been dreaded by those who hate shots, but this year a company called PharmaJet introduced a device that uses “a high-pressure steam of liquid to pierce the skin and deliver the vaccine.” The needle-phobics rejoiced. But now the FDA is saying, Not so fast. …

Pediatricians and development experts have strongly urged parents, once again, to limit the amount of television their young children watch. The American Academy of Pediatrics released a recommendation to all parents of children under 2 years old Tuesday. It stressed that any time spent in front of …

A selfless mother has died to save her unborn baby. The woman was diagnosed with a life-threatening form of cancer and refused chemotherapy so that her child could be born, even though it meant she would die. Stacie Crimm, 41, was diagnosed with neck cancer just a short time after finally becoming p…

A new study reveals hair stylists and barbers are excellent detectors of skin cancers on the scalp, neck and face, areas often difficult to see by others. Two hundred stylists and barbers in Houston, TX were surveyed, and researchers found that although few of them had been formally trained to spot …

Every woman of a certain age knows the horror of waking up to find a few new wrinkles, but Nguyen Thi Phuong lived a worse nightmare. This 23-year-old Vietnamese woman woke up one morning three years ago and looked 50 years older than she was. The young woman was given medication for a seafood aller…

Last week, we reported on Renee-Nicole Douceur, a researcher who’s been stranded in the South Pole since suffering a stroke in August. After awaiting rescue for seven agonizing weeks, Douceur has finally begun to make her way back home, ‘Today‘ reports. Douceur departed the Sout…

Vitamins are said to be good for you. According to a new study from the University of Minnesota, however, that may not always be the case. Researchers reviewed the cases of 38,000 women over a 19-year period and found that those who took supplements had about a 2.4 percent increased risk of death ov…

New research suggests women on birth control pills tend to choose men they feel will be more stable relationship partners over guys who may be better looking or sexier. In the study, Scottish and Czech scientists asked 2,500 women who had at least one child about their relationships with their partn…

In a landmark new law, the state of California has prohibited all children under 14 from using tanning beds. State residents between the ages of 14 and 18 will only be allowed to tan under artificial light if they provide proof of parental consent. “Skin cancer is a rising epidemic …